His advice is possibly legit but its quite amusing how its delivered

But anyway....My posts are starting to feel a bit troll like. Not my intention...but how can you expec to get any credit whatsoever from the non poker paying community with posts like " I make 300k a year and pay no tax"

In the eyes of the general community the difference between illegal and legal tax dodgers is virtually zero.

You're not paying tax on your basic income. People hate that. Good luck getting any sympathy anywhere

Pontylad. There's a disclaimer at the top, I just scrolled to the bottom and found another one there. So there's more than one

I'm not saying you should or shouldn't or starting an ethical discussion, perhaps read my posts a bit more carefully. Just pointing out how you look via reverse perception. Sorry of the truth hurts

Denks. If you can't see the difference between the income of poker pros and one off binking a lottery win there's not much point in engaging you. Gl

As far as tax is concerned there is no difference. Just because you want there to be a difference doesn't make it so.

I don't want there to be a difference really, it's more that even joe bloggs understands the difference

I'm prob not articulating myself very well from my phone in a hostile paranoid environment. I wish you guys all the best with this really. Same **** will prob happen to us

But it's the fish I feel sorry for most, not the pros. Perhaps it's impractical but I wish for an ideal world where the guys who skinned all the donks put something back into the game by lobbying for a tax paying compromise on future earnings. Or perhaps some tax paying system like sports betting in the UK where you can choose to pay tax on the way in or way out

Surely anything would be better than losing poker altogether.

I see where you are coming from and agree but from a different angle. I don't see why a professional anything shouldn't pay tax. Having said that, I don't begrudge pro poker players not paying tax currently when there is absolutely no obligation to do so. Maybe flat tax on withdrawals? Would be dead simple to implement and only winning players would pay tax.

taxing only winning players is beyond ******ed, games are tough enough. itd make some marginal winners, breakeven. Rake is the tax winning players pay, grow a fkn brain.

Here's the thing, if the gov were to tax poker they couldn't give two rats about whether rake is paid to the site, they will want to get their own cut. You are talking as if the gov really cares about how viable poker is as a profession.

true, would be easy to get around unless they segregated au though.

Lol. This sort of misplaced sense of entitlement thinking is exactly the problem I'm talking about

Serious questions.
If the government could see a projected income stream from online poker do you think they would view outright banning it differently?
Is winnings taxed poker better than no poker at all?
What's more important, the right of all Australians to play online poker, or the right of poker pros to avoid paying tax?

your talking about equal rights for everyone within the poker economy, but how is it equal that only winners pay the tax?

Am i talking about equal rights

Oops posted early by mistake....but anyway I thought u was just talking about ways to get non poker players / the govt seriously when it comes to taking away the right to play online

Winning non tax paying pros are just an obvious target. BTW.... I'm a player type who would suffer a lot from such a rule as you pointed out before

Losers have no income to pay tax on. In fact some other countries that tax gambling winnings may also allow gambling losses to be tax deductible, in Australia they are not.

The Gov(particularly the States) get a huge amount of revenue from gambling, Aus gambling companies pay through the nose in tax (eg. Tatts pays around 50% of its lottery revenue to the state Governments, and that's before the corporate income tax). If they taxed the winnings the individual makes on something like the lotto, it would be double taxation.

Online poker is different, it is offered by off shore companies like Pokerstars who pay no tax here, which is why there has been a trend for countries to regulate poker in order to tax it (eg. pokerstars.it). If the Aus Gov wants tax revenue from poker, they will do the same. It's possible this could be the end game if it ever gets banned.

The average person would have no idea whether gambling earnings are taxable or not.

I think people should be more concerned with the excessive taxes the governments already collects from everyone else, rather than arguing for new ones.

Yep Labour + Greens have the power in the senate then so they would have to oppose any legislation, there are a number of other major issues way before poker anyway.

Also even when the senate changes in July next year there are those few random independenants that got in Rich Muir from the motorist party, liberal democrats + the other one, that could throw some curveballs at Abbot if he were to push for legislation to enforce the IGA.

And dont forget the recent internet filter policy debarkle just prior to the election

I don't think their is anything to be worried about at this current time

Why does everyone talk about the senate as a time saver?? The legislation has already passed through the senate In the form of the IGA, It is now merely a case of enforcement. There has been no suggestions of a need to amend the IGA to enforce the act so whether the senate is a lame duck or literally filled with ducks it should make no difference to the coalitions ability to enforce it.

The UK sports betting is not a tax on the punter any more it is a levy on th gross revenues of the bookies.

Similarly poker sites serving the UK market will soon have to pay a Point of Consumption Tax on all UK retained revenues (rake-VIP/Rakeback), likely of 15%

Legal poker can make a tax contribution but that does not mean going for th players, collecting from the sites is far easier.

Yes the arguments need refining but the head in sand approach will not work.

You already have an act that bans online poker, now you have a new government with a policy in their manifesto to enforce that ban. The politician's have noticed, it already has attention.

Worse it is the only anti gambling bit of their policy, they are going softer on pokies (voluntary not mandatory pre commitment levels) less federal action, leaving it to states, self regulation on advertising. The even plan to abolish the levy on the industry that was to fund federal regulation, a straight up bung to the industry.

The only thing they have to appease the anti gambling lobby is enforcing the existing ban. Makes them look tough but does not affect the real money tree (taxes) at the state level.

Pretending this is not happening/will not happen is not a +ev play

Policy link:
http://www.liberal.org.au/helping-problem-gamblers

This is true, and it may just be enforced at any time. It's at least something to have a favourable Senate in case the law needs to be changed or they want to pass other laws along with it, etc.

That would occur in Australia too. You would be stupid to think otherwise. And even if it was legislated this way, you would have to reckon that it would be challenged in court and successfully overturned.

If poker is not yet banned in Oz, could we stop bumping this thread, thanks. Giving me a heart attack everyday i see this still at the top of the page.

I'm saying get it polished and use it as defence when our freedom is threatened, otherwise you're kicking the hornets nest.

I'm aware of the legislation and realise that no legislation needs to be passed, but perhaps getting IGA repealed or amended is another option - I'm sure the LDP senator would support that, perhaps worth canvassing?

lol. After OzPoker3DomFighte post fat chance!

The liberals policy around problem gambling is not solely focused on online poker, it is more likely an overall gambling legislation and would require support on numerous issues not just online poker. If they were to enforce the IGA it would be part of a bigger gambling reform which would require new legislation imo.

^^^This, ive said what i had to, better to not keep bumping this thread and let it die like the rest of them have in the past.

I don't mean to sound like a dick, but I feel that alot of the high stakes aussie players arn't speaking up about this. I understand the reasons for this, yet I still am amiss to why some kind of concerted effort to fight this has not been done by one or a group of the high stakes regs yet. And I'm not talking about debating in this thread it should be left to die. A facebook group would be a start and then an aussie poker organisation or something. I'm sure they have connections and money to start some kind of organisation.

regarding whether its taxed im sure the majority of full time aussie poker players would be fine with it but it should be treated like any other business. Therefore, losses should be able to be rolled over to next year as deductions, as well as tax offsets for internet, poker books, coaching sessions, training sites, table ninja subscriptions, airfares to live events, hotel expenses at live events, all costs related to going to a live event for that matter.

If they want to tax it they have to treat it like a business whereby each player has an ABN acting as a sole trader and can deduct all costs associated with the business.

That's right.... Being taxed isn't the end of the world. You can add claiming rent on a office to grind in etc

It would be amazing if the Guys who have pwned for years would step up and be proactive but of course that won't happen. They will just quit n sit on their rolls ..or move to Thailand ...or w/e

In the meantime joe blow can't join 2 $10 MTTs in a tue night after work anymore and instead wanders down to the local and blows through 10 x that in an hour on the f n poker machines ( I HATE those things)